It recently started doing this. When I turn on my headlights, there's a 1 second period where the engine bogs down and sometime dies. (dashboard warning lights come on too).

My guess is it has to do with the ground since if I put the ballast box against something metal it works. So I tried to take the ground wire and screw it straight into a piece of metal, and it does the same thing.

It is grounded though, since the headlight turns on. It only does this with one of the balasts. Any ideas?

1.check and see if the grounding wire is well connected.
2.check your storage battery, if use them for many years, maybe you should change a new one.
3.change the direction of the plug, exchange the left and right.